


Its effect is to shame one set of women while erasing another.

by Franzeska



Series: March Meta Matters [5]
Category: Fandom - Fandom
Genre: Gen, Meta, Nonfiction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-31
Updated: 2016-08-31
Packaged: 2021-02-26 14:23:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 726
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23036428
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Franzeska/pseuds/Franzeska
Summary: Cranky feels about a common "can we just talk about" topic
Series: March Meta Matters [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1664836
Comments: 9
Kudos: 9
Collections: March Meta Matters Challenge





	Its effect is to shame one set of women while erasing another.

**Author's Note:**

> Uploaded for day 5 of the March Meta Matters Challenge
> 
> This was from a discussion of how fandom sidelines female characters by writing them as asexual. The argument is that fandom cares about shipping, so characters we _actually_ care about are the ones we put in ships. I still think one has to ask "Which fans? Where?", but it's at least a fair observation of where I tend to hang out.
> 
> What annoyed me was that there was this long discussion of ace Rey as a sidelined part of Finn/Poe fic... without even a single mention that people _do_ ship Rey. Sidelined ace Rey has never been nearly as common as main character Rey boning Kylo. Leaving that out of the conversation is obnoxious because it puts the blame on slash fandom when what's really going on is that the Badwrong ship is more popular than the "virtuous" options for Rey.
> 
> I have grown allergic to "Can we just talk about" and "It's important to recognize" in fandom discourse because I think they are part of a pattern where we abuse ourselves but don't change our behavior. My view is that you should either accept that you only like what you like and stop hurting yourself--and guild-tripping everyone around you. Or, if you genuinely think that the way you are is bad, you should _do something about it._
> 
> I especially hate how posts like this create an atmosphere where everyone "knows" that slash is problematic or fujoshi are bad or that nobody actually likes female characters. None of this is true, and projecting our own guilt and issues all over the rest of fandom is _not_ a brave act of consciousness raising.

> “But that doesn’t mean it’s not worth recognizing, and talking about, the pattern that emerges from the sum of fandom’s priorities.”

A decade ago, I agreed with this view and posted things like this all the time. I think it’s a fair thing for any slash-loving fangirl to think about for herself at some point in her fannish life. But as a public discussion topic…

**Its effect is to shame one set of women while erasing another.**

Women are only ruled out of our stories if we’re looking at m/m slash fandom. Rey is _not_ unpopular in romance fics. It’s just that those fics are _Reylo_, so people pretend they don’t count.

Canons that feature a central female wish fulfillment heroine often spawn fandoms that are the same. Many of the ships are about aspirational boyfriends or consent issues or fucked up people, just like you find in m/m fic.

  * Look at Twilight fandom! Het as far as the eye can see!
  * Look at Mortal Instruments fandom: On AO3, the canon gay ship has 4x the fic Clary does, but on FFN, she’s more tagged than either of those guys.
  * Star Wars prequel trilogy fandom spawned the massive Qui Gon/Obi Wan fandom. It also spawned a bazillion Padme/Anakin shippers who still make cheesy vids on Youtube. I see _hundreds_ from the last month alone.

Female action heroes who fit the male mold get the same kind of fandom response their male counterparts do. The fandoms may be tiny or they may not be on AO3 or even FFN, but the fannish impulse is no different.

  * Sicario is about an angry, violent female woobie who eventually realizes that one of the older guys helping with their secret mission has a horrible hidden agenda, and her own side is using her. The fic is entirely dirtybadwrong with the two of them. I know because I left the theater with a powerful NEED, and I went looking. The internet provided.
  * That 2001 Tomb Raider movie spawned a bunch of femdom-y fic about action hero Angelina Jolie and her disposable love interest old flame Daniel Craig.
  * I haven’t watched Castle since around season 2, but the FFN fic was all about Beckett and her gruff TV cop dude-style issues. (Yeah, AO3 was full of the supporting character m/m pairing, but that was a tiny part of the fandom.)

Women even get the ascended cameo treatment like Hux does:

  * MCU’s Darcy owned an ipod and ogled Thor. That was enough to start the deluge of her as Loki’s babymama, the Avengers bicycle, and everybody’s self-insert SHIELD agent.

Femslash is smaller overall in fandom, but it’s big in exactly the fandoms I would expect: fandoms with multiple hot women dressed fabulously.

  * Such as fandoms with Nicole Haught’s tight little ass in her very tight uniform pants! You can see Waverly lose brain cells when Officer Hotass looks over her shoulder and puts on her hat in that swaggering cowboy way. (Congrats on your toaster, Nicole!)
  * I don’t watch OUAT, but the popularity there is no mystery: faaaabulous evil queen who is a total hottie has angry tension with another hottie. Look at those power suits: So much power, so much predatoriness. Tie me down and hurt me, mommy!
  * Mad scientist class clown with total lesbian hair? Ex friends who are still hung up on each other? _Hello_, Ghostbusters femslash!
  * Magical girl anime is not my thing, but I have yet to encounter one that wasn’t swimming with yuri ships because those canons are about women’s emotional relationships with each other–and often fucked up, contentious, rival relationships.

People of like tastes flock together. Wattpad is all Mary Sue meets 1D. FFN is full of canon-ish het. AO3 is m/m central. It may be hard to find a specific ship or specific trope with the specific female character one likes. A particular fandom may be tragically unpopular and no amount of trying will make Fetch happen. But…

**It is not hard to find Lady Stories if you are looking.**

We don’t need to pony up a Lady Story out of duty when so many people write them out of love. We just need to redefine who counts as an acceptable fan who is part of “us” instead of part of “them”.

** _Reylos and fanfiction.net: still “us”._ **


End file.
